what comes up first in your mind when you heard the word "witch"? could it be an ugly hag riding on a flying broom? or maybe the cute Harry Potter ^ ^? well, whatever it is no one will sue you since witches were only tales. yet, let's check out what the dictionary says about witch and witchcraft:

witch = n. woman who was supposed to practice sorcery, sorceress.
witchcraft = n. black magic, sorcery, necromancy, shamanism, brujeria.

as you can read above, witches are supposed to be females. however, only in WH Robin witches referred to anyone who practice sorcery, males or females. witches and witchcraft were famed since ancient time, even before my great grandpa was born. still, we can hear people practicing witchcraft nowadays. the Hollywood seems to be interested with it as well, shown by numerous movies and serials about witchcraft in the last 5 years. i'm not superstitious one yet i have interest in many things beyond common sense (called it curiosity). however, i'm not against those who believe in witchcraft.

this time around i'll present you a very famous incident which involved witchcraft, called The Salem Witch Trials 1692. it happened in a small village named Salem, New England, Massachusetts, U.S. when serial horrible incidents shocked the villagers, lead to an irrational reason i.e. witchcraft. it began when few lil girls behaved abnormally, the doctors couldn't find the true cause, thus the villagers began to worry that it was caused by witchcraft. when the girls were asked about they pointed certain people as the culprits, witches who employed them. a hysteria happened suddenly in a village which were only populated by 550 lives. the friendly society turned to suspicious and aggressive to each others.

eventually, a trial was held to judge those who were accused as witches. yet, due to the enormous fear and suspicion, the accused were not given any chances to speak for themselves. even if they tried to defy it, no ones believed in them anymore. along the year 1692, many unilateral trials held and the accused witches were end executed. totally there were 16 women and 4 men executed, and at least 4 others died in cells. though actually all of them refused the accusation of witchcraft (you can read some of their death notes i wrote in every pages of this project). in the end, no one could prove whether those casualties were real witches or not, and the witch hunt ended as the year 1692 passed.

this famous phenomena had inspired a writer named Arthur Miller to write a novel entitled The Crucible. few years ago, a Hollywood movie industry visualized it into big screen with the same title. indeed, it was aired in one of tv stations in my hometown a year ago but i missed it T_T